Visconti quality control, is that an oxymoron?

[mulrich]

I’ve had some problems with my Visconti pens but not with the nibs. Still love the pens. I must be lucky. 
 

It’s a shame that the company leans into the Italian stereotype of beautiful design with terrible reliability. 

[Dillo]

I have four Visconti Homo Sapiens, and all of mine were non-writing out of the box. I had to get the nibs reground and adjusted properly, and they write beautifully now. They were all fairly recent purchases, within the past year with the 14K gold inhouse nibs. The power filler and fit and finish is not even close to any of my TWSBI Vac700R. The fillers in my TWSBI Vac700R are silky smooth unlike with my Viscontis. The ones in my Viscontis are notchy even with proper lubrication. One of mine had a bad feed out of the box, and I did a lot of troubleshooting, swapping feeds between pens, and that feed had consistent problems.

 

If Pilot can make their $2ish VPen fountain pen write almost every time out of the box, then something is wrong here.

 

I do like my Viscontis now that they are all repaired and working, but it took a lot of effort to get to this place.

[dms525]

27 minutes ago, Dillo said:

I have four Visconti Homo Sapiens, and all of mine were non-writing out of the box. I had to get the nibs reground and adjusted properly, and they write beautifully now. They were all fairly recent purchases, within the past year with the 14K gold inhouse nibs. The power filler and fit and finish is not even close to any of my TWSBI Vac700R. The fillers in my TWSBI Vac700R are silky smooth unlike with my Viscontis. The ones in my Viscontis are notchy even with proper lubrication. One of mine had a bad feed out of the box, and I did a lot of troubleshooting, swapping feeds between pens, and that feed had consistent problems.

 

If Pilot can make their $2ish VPen fountain pen write almost every time out of the box, then something is wrong here.

 

I do like my Viscontis now that they are all repaired and working, but it took a lot of effort to get to this place.

 

Your experience has been similar to mine.

 

I actually had the experience - maybe 10 years ago - of telling my favorite nibmeister I was going to be buying another Visconti. He suggested I have the vendor send it directly to him, based on the expectation that I would be having him work on the nib anyway once I got it. Cut down on the time until it would write well and some of the shipping cost.

 

David

[Lam1]

On 7/29/2024 at 7:05 PM, by78 said:

Surprise, surprise... a €1350 ($1500) Visconti doesn't write. In a previous video, SBREBROWN revealed that 60-70% of Visconti pens he received for review suffered from issues so severe that it was impossible to review them.

 

Why do so many in the FP community tolerate such nonsense from Visconti and continue to apologize for the company?

 

 

 

I’ve bought three Homo Sapiens (one a gift to my son). All three wrote beautifully out of the box. Never had any  issues.

[by78]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:05 PM, by78 said:

Surprise, surprise... a €1350 ($1500) Visconti doesn't write. In a previous video, SBREBROWN revealed that 60-70% of Visconti pens he received for review suffered from issues so severe that it was impossible to review them.

 

Why do so many in the FP community tolerate such nonsense from Visconti and continue to apologize for the company?

 

 

 

 

Here's how a similarly priced Japanese fountain pen is made. Look at the skills, the care, and the pride with which the pen is crafted and the nib meticulous tuned. It makes the people at Visconti look like a bunch of monkeys doused in itching powder. 

 

 

[mulrich]

3 hours ago, by78 said:

Here's how a similarly priced Japanese fountain pen is made. Look at the skills, the care, and the pride with which the pen is crafted and the nib meticulous tuned. It makes the people at Visconti look like a bunch of monkeys doused in itching powder. 

I'm sure if Visconti made a similar video they'd also show meticulous care and craftsmanship. Not saying Visconti is Pilot's equal in terms of quality but we shouldn't form opinions based on PR material.

[by78]

1 hour ago, mulrich said:

I'm sure if Visconti made a similar video they'd also show meticulous care and craftsmanship. Not saying Visconti is Pilot's equal in terms of quality but we shouldn't form opinions based on PR material.

 

I'm sure Visconti can't make a similar video, because that would require showing genuine skills, especially when it comes to tuning nibs to make sure the pens write. 

[I-am-not-really-here]

My one and done Visconti Homo Sapien (bought via eBay from a seller I'd not purchased from prior) was (bleep) out of the box except when held upside down then it was, um, acceptable.
 

 If I were to ever consider another Visconti it would have to come from a dealer with in-house nib tuning, e.g. Kirk Speer from PenChalet.

[Dillo]

There are similar videos about Visconti's factory. One of the most recent of which was made by an American guy who likes to wear suits. There is one from Appelboom and another by Pen Venture.

 

All of them seem to be third-party made material to show how well things are going.

 

I think they need to think about tightening their tolerances in general. Things are quite rough. My Visconti Homo Sapiens have clips that are warped. They are clearly curved in a direction where they probably should be straight. The Appelboom video highlights some new quality control measures, but my Homo Sapiens were made some time after that video was made

[Ron Z]

"It's a beautiful pen!  You want that it should write too?"

 

Sorry....  I couldn't resist.  The only other brand that I've consistently had problems with at the same level were the Conway Stewarts some 15 or more years ago.  

[nm4]

It's not just the miserable quality control...it's also the totally lackluster service experience.  I was sold a pen from them that didn't write; they sent me a replacement nib that wasn't even the same color...and no response after I pointed this out.

 

Sad, but I cannot recommend this brand based on their recent customer service.  I own 6 Viscontis and now realize if there's ever an issue I am SOL: this company just doesn't care about its customers.  I will probably keep the CC pens but offload the power fillers as I doubt replacement parts will be available...and I know Visconti won't be much help.   I've dealt with customer service from Lamy, TWSBI, Parker, and Montblanc - all worlds better.  I wish the best for Visconti but get the impression they just don't care.

 

N

[Ron Z]

Speaking to myself as much as anyone....  do be careful with comments.  I don't know if we're naming and shaming, or just commiserating with each other, but the line is thin.  They made and make some beautiful pens, but the main function of a fountain pen is to write, smoothly and reliably.  Anything beyond that is bling.  Not that bling is bad, just that it should come second on the list of desired properties.

[Tashi_Tsering]

I currently have 11 Visconti pens, until recently I had 20. Only 1 had a badly adjusted nib.

 

I think all manufacturers have problems with nibs. For example, a good friend of mine is convinced that all Montblanc pens do not write, because he has come across Montblanc pens with bad nibs several times in a row.

 

Personally, I had the most problems with Montegrappa pens, but nothing that I could not fix myself.

[Beechwood]

I have had three Visconti FPs and had problems with them all in a short time, one was a prize and I bought the other two. The retailer, a huge London department store, was simply not interested in organising a repair, they even blamed me for not buying Visconti ink or suggested that I or someone else must have dropped it.

 

This cheesed me off having always supported the principle that products should fulfil their intended purpose, if they were a low priced pen I could cut them some slack but not at this price point.

 

 

[tde44x]

Perhaps I won the lottery for a change 😀. Over the past 2 years (latest purchase was on FPD) I have purchased 3 Visconti's. All have been wonderful writers out of the box and are in my daily rotation. None required any adjustments. 

 

Two are Homo Sapiens with the 18k nibs (a broad and a stub). Third is a Divina Elegance with the 18k broad nib.

 

When I first considered buying a Visconti, I was very concerned. So, I only purchased from stores (online) with excellent return policies or were willing to test the pens before shipping. I bought each from a different store due to availability of what I wanted as well as price.

 

FYI - I purchased mine from: Pen Boutique (Maryland), Atlas (Chicago), and Stilo & Stile (Rome). While I have nothing negative to say about the purchases, I was extremely pleased with Stilo & Stile as they included a fairly long handwritten note which showed the writing of the pen, included writing in all directions (left, right, up, down).

[by78]

6 hours ago, tde44x said:

Perhaps I won the lottery for a change 😀. Over the past 2 years (latest purchase was on FPD) I have purchased 3 Visconti's. All have been wonderful writers out of the box and are in my daily rotation. None required any adjustments. 

 

Two are Homo Sapiens with the 18k nibs (a broad and a stub). Third is a Divina Elegance with the 18k broad nib.

 

When I first considered buying a Visconti, I was very concerned. So, I only purchased from stores (online) with excellent return policies or were willing to test the pens before shipping. I bought each from a different store due to availability of what I wanted as well as price.

 

FYI - I purchased mine from: Pen Boutique (Maryland), Atlas (Chicago), and Stilo & Stile (Rome). While I have nothing negative to say about the purchases, I was extremely pleased with Stilo & Stile as they included a fairly long handwritten note which showed the writing of the pen, included writing in all directions (left, right, up, down).

 

It's not a lottery if you asked the retailers to test the pens before sending them out. 

 

That said, your suggestions are very useful. In fact, they are the only safe way to buy Viscontis: find retailers that have generous return policies and are willing to hand test the pens for you.

 

Now I'm curious as to how many pens your retailers had tested and rejected before finding the three acceptable ones to ship out. The number of rejections had to have been at least a dozen.

[by78]

On 12/4/2024 at 12:07 AM, nm4 said:

It's not just the miserable quality control...it's also the totally lackluster service experience.  I was sold a pen from them that didn't write; they sent me a replacement nib that wasn't even the same color...and no response after I pointed this out.

 

Sad, but I cannot recommend this brand based on their recent customer service.  I own 6 Viscontis and now realize if there's ever an issue I am SOL: this company just doesn't care about its customers.  I will probably keep the CC pens but offload the power fillers as I doubt replacement parts will be available...and I know Visconti won't be much help.   I've dealt with customer service from Lamy, TWSBI, Parker, and Montblanc - all worlds better.  I wish the best for Visconti but get the impression they just don't care.

 

N

 

Yep, Visconti's customer service is as bad as its quality control. There are many horror stories about Visconti not giving a (bleep) about repair requests, which they seem to reject as often as insurance companies reject claims. Even if they offered to repair, the turnaround would likely be measured in months, and you should count yourself lucky if the problem is fixed the first time.

 

Visconti seems to operate on the principle that once the pens are shipped out, they become other people's problems. Just an all-around shady company. 

[mulrich]

1 hour ago, by78 said:

Now I'm curious as to how many pens your retailers had tested and rejected before finding the three acceptable ones to ship out.

A lot of problems are isolated to the nib in which case they could just swap out the nib unit until finding one that works. Not sure how the retailer-Visconti relationship works but I imagine a retailer could send defective nib units back to Visconti for replacement. 

[Ron Z]

Sometimes it's the shape of the nib.  But quite often, if not most often,  the feed is the problem that needs to be addressed.

[nm4]

10 hours ago, Ron Z said:

Sometimes it's the shape of the nib.  But quite often, if not most often,  the feed is the problem that needs to be addressed.

Ron I just wanted to say I appreciate you and learn so much from your posts.   Thank you for being such an amazing resource.  I’ve wasted too many hours of my life trying to perfect nibs and now realize the feeds may have been the issue! 
 

N